Saved
by KB Kerns
Summary: Mandy Wiles is what girls want to be; pretty, popular, and dating the hunky star QB. Her life is envied, sought after...predictable. That is, until the last person she expected changes it completely. She's not sure if its good or bad...and neither is he.
1. So Much Drama

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bully; it is owned by the geniuses at Rockstar. I wish I did though, 'cause I would definitely make a sequel. **

Bullworth Academy; an idealistic and pristine boarding school set against the gorgeous backdrop of a coastal New England town. Highly qualified staff and well-educated, successful students. Among the top ten private schools in the country.

At least that's what the brochure said when Mandy Wiles' parents first brought it home for her when she was thirteen.

"_Amanda, your father and I have decided it would be best for you to…due to your academic standings..." her mother began cautiously._

"_We're sending you to Bullworth Academy, a boarding school," her father had said._

Mandy had been so shocked she didn't even know how to react. So she had run into a little trouble at school…didn't everyone? Sure, she failed a few classes, gotten a few detentions…a week. Like, whatever. It wasn't her fault she was above the idiots that went to her school. People just didn't get her sense of humor, they said she was '_mean'_. Well, screw them all, she was going to be a model when she got older. She didn't need good grades for that. Or real friends.

But…boarding school? Um, seriously? Was this some kind of cruel joke?

Her parents had practically thrown her out the car door as they pulled up to the wrought-iron gates of Bullworth Academy. "Have a good term, sweetie!" they said, as if what they were doing wasn't totally like, child abuse.

So there she sat, two years later, in her small pink dorm room that she shared with Christy Martin, the ditzy school gossip. She was reading TeenPeople while listening to her new blue ipod her parents had sent her for her birthday.

"…did you hear what I said, Mandy?"

Mandy's head snapped up from her magazine and she paused the song she was listening to. Christy was such an annoying bitch, but she was a good cheerleader and she was pretty. Mandy liked having pretty friends to make herself feel better, so she kept Christy around.

"What?" Mandy snapped.

"I _said_ have you seen that new guy? Jimmy Hopkins?"

The name sounded vaguely familiar; she was pretty sure he was in her art class. He was a tough guy, with an 'I'm-a-bad-ass' attitude. Loser.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"Do you think he's cute?"

"He's short and bald," Mandy answered with a tone of finality.

"I think he's cute," said Christy with a smirk. Mandy was getting irritated. "So date him then," she snapped.

"What's your problem?" asked Christy. She was slow, but she could sense when Mandy was pissed off at her.

Her problem? Where should she start? Her problem was that she hadn't talked to Ted all week. Her problem was that she was failing English. Her problem was that she had to be at cheerleading in half an hour and hadn't even made herself throw up today.

"Nothing Christy, don't worry about it," was all she chose to say. She heard her hot pink LG Voyager vibrate on her nightstand. _'Please be Ted,'_ she silently begged.

To her disappointment, it was her friend Pinky Gauthier.

'_come over 2 Harrington 2nite. Tad wants 2 c u'_

Mandy rolled her eyes. Frigging Tad Spencer had been practically stalking her for the last two weeks after she hooked up with him at Pinky's Sweet 16. Sure, he was totally dreamy and rich, but she was pretty sure his mom was also legally his aunt or something to that effect. Not to mention, he had webbed toes on one foot, which she found out while hooking up with him.

Nothing to turn you all the way off like finding a physical deformity during sex.

'_K. see u at practice' _she texted back quickly.

"I'm going to the locker room, Christy. You coming?"

Christy nodded eagerly, following her out of the dorm and to the gym. When Mandy stepped inside the gym, the familiar smell of sweat and chlorine filled her nostrils. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her boyfriend Ted Thompson and Damon West coming in from practice.

She secretly suspected Ted knew about Mandy and Tad, which was why he avoided her all week. What_ever_, its not like he wasn't scoring as much off the field as he was on it.

"Ted!" she called out in spite of herself. He turned around and a smile broke out on his face. "Hey, baby," he said, walking over to her. "Where've you been hiding?" he asked.

"You haven't called me all week," she whined. Ted rolled his eyes. "Been busy, you know? Coach has been totally on my ass all week. I'm not starting QB for nothing. Yo, Damon, wait up dude," he said, starting to walk away. Mandy grabbed his arm. "Are you like, mad at me? You can't be mad at me…right?" she asked, suddenly paranoid.

He quickly kissed her forehead. "No, I'm not mad at you babe, I gotta go," he said, leaving her standing there alone. Mandy quickly looked around. No one could see her standing there alone, looking all pathetic and dependent on a man. _'Yeah right, like that'll ever happen,'_

She trudged down to the locker room where the girls were already changed and waiting for their _beloved _captain, looking at her expectantly.

'_Aw, they're so lost without me, stupid bitches,'_ she thought fondly. "All right girls, go out there and warm up. I'll be right out," she ordered.

They filed out of the locker room. Mandy went to her locker, painted pink with hearts, and got changed. She went out into the gym, intending to put on a show for Ted as he was leaving.

"Okay girls, get in formation," she commanded. Pinky appeared immediately at her right, Christy on her left, and Angie next to Christy.

"Ready? Okay! Bullworth Bullhorns are the best, we are better than the rest, if you—"

_Thwack!_

Mandy turned to see Angie on the floor. "Ow," she groaned, getting back up. Mandy rolled her eyes.

"Get back up, Ng, what are people gonna say if you do that in a game?" she asked. She was clearly not in the mood for the squad to suck today. She turned to Christy and Pinky.

"Pink, get your arms up higher! Christy, would it like, kill you to actually _cheer_? This IS cheerleading. And you all wonder why I'm captain and you're not? Okay, from the top…and 5,6,7,8!"

Just then, Constantinos Brakus came out from the locker room in his stupid ass Bull mascot uniform

"Oh my _god_," Pinky squealed. "Do the Cow Dance, please, please, please?" she begged.

Christy and Angie followed suit. Mandy slapped a hand to her forehead. She knew Constantinos had a _major_ thing for Pinky, despite the fact that she didn't even know he existed, much less the fact that he was the mascot. So of course, Constantinos did his stupid little Cow Dance to impress her.

"Bullworth Bulls! Yeah Bullworth, go Bullworth!" he said, doing some spiffy moves that cows apparently did. Mandy felt like killing herself.

"WATCH OUT!" came a yell from across the gym. A group of kids were playing dodgeball, and the ball happened to be flying in the direction of Constantinos. It beamed him off the head, knocking him over into the nearest trash can.

All of the football players who were still leaving the locker room doubled over laughing, and even Mandy sniggered.

"Oh no!" said Angie. She hurried over to him, followed by Pinky and Christy.

"Poor little guy, are you okay?" asked Angie. Christy and Pinky looked sympathetic; they were quite taken with the big red cow.

"Oh Jesus," Mandy mumbled to herself, shaking her head.

"Oh _great_, I probably just lost about 200 brain cells, buttwipe!" she heard Constantinos complain loudly from the trashcan.

She had to get out of there, ASAP. She threw her pom-poms on the ground and marched out of the gym in a huff. God help whoever got in her way.

Someone did in fact get in her way; an unfortunate boy entering the gym. She noted that he was a few inches shorter than her, with a shaved head. She knew it was that Hopkins kid everyone had been shitting their pants over for the past week.

"Watch it, dorkwad," she snapped, pushing past him. "Bitch," he muttered under his breath. Normally, she'd kick him in the balls, but in her current mental state she just brushed on by him.

When she got back to the dorm, she was met with the ugly face of Beatrice, the girl she loved to torment. Beating on her usually cheered Mandy up, and tonight was no exception.

"Hey there, metal mouth," she began in a faux friendly voice. Beatrice looked up from her homework. "What do you want Mandy?" she asked, sounding a lot braver than she felt.

"Just want to know why you're such an unfortunate loser. Is it genetic?" she asked.

"Just leave me alone, Mandy, I'm serious, I'll—"

"You'll _what_, braceface? Bore me to death? You already are," said Mandy, shoving her as she walked to the bathroom.

In the shower, she let the hot water wash away all her troubles of the day. She just wanted to erase it from her mind and crawl into her nice, warm, comfortable (well, by Bullworth standards) bed.

Fresh, clean, and nice smelling, she climbed into bed. She had no intentions of going to Harrington tonight, and was just about to text Pinky when her phone buzzed. Her heart raced as the name 'Ted' appeared on the screen.

"Hi baby," she said, smiling into the phone.

"Hey beautiful, I'm sorry about today, I'm just kinda stressed with football and stuff, you know? I've been getting a lot of calls from scouts saying they wanna see me play and—"

Mandy tried not to sigh in frustration. It was all about football with him. Why couldn't they just talk about _her_? She was much more interesting than some stupid sport where a bunch of meatheads beat each other up over a ball.

LAME.

"It's cool, Ted, don't even stress over it," she cut him off. "Look, I'm so wiped, I need beauty sleep, I'll talk to you tomorrow," she said, eager to go to bed.

"Oh…that's cool, I should too…I gotta be up at 5 for morning prac-"

"Okay, bye!" Mandy said cheerfully, snapping her phone shut and tossing it on her nightstand. She didn't even bother texting Pinky. She didn't care about Tad…or Ted, at the moment. She flopped back onto her pillow and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to take her.

She heard Christy come in, shuffling around as she got into her PJ's. Mandy pretended to sleep; a conversation with Christy was _not_ on her agenda.

After a while, she could hear Christy's soft snoring, eventually putting her to sleep.

She had this totally awful dream where she was forced to marry Tad Spencer at his father's shipping warehouse in front of the entire school. Pinky was the minister, and Ted, instead of gallantly coming to her rescue, sat in the back making out with his football.

Mandy's eyes shot open, and she was vaguely aware of Christy shaking her gently. "Mand, come on, you're gonna be late," she said. Mandy chanced a glance at the clock.

The big green numbers read 9:15.

She groaned, slowly getting out of bed. "Thanks Christy," she said, acknowledging the red head.

"I'll wait for you," Christy offered. "We have English first."

'_Agh, fuck my life,'_

Mandy threw her hair back into the usual ponytail and got into her uniform. She only put on mascara and lip gloss due to the time crunch, and her and Christy high-tailed it to the main building. Thumbs up for doing sprints at practice, right?

The duo made it into the classroom at exactly 9:30, right as the bell rang. Galloway was a pretty chill guy (likely due to his drinking), and didn't say anything to them other than "new seats today, girls".

He pointed Christy to her seat. Mandy hoped she would be next to her, but Galloway pointed her to the very back of the room, in the very last seat. The Isolation Desk.

'_Christ, they're gonna have to pump oxygen to me,'_

She was so tired she didn't even look to see who she was sitting around; something she usually did right away. It wasn't until five minutes into class that she was even aware someone was sitting next to her.

"Hey, princess, you got a pen?" a smooth voice drawled from her right.

She turned to address whichever loser had the balls to ask _her_ for a pen, and was met with the scarred face of Bullworth's resident psychopath, Gary Smith.

**A/N:** Hopefully this is somewhat decent so far. Mandy is my favorite character for some reason, and I've had the idea for this story bouncing around in my head since I first got the game. As far as the pairing goes…well, you'll just have to wait and see! I love building suspense (: Reviews are lovely!


	2. Deal with the Devil

**A/N: **Much thanks to **occasionallyme** for being my first reviewer! Glad you're still interested, even if you hate Mandy (: Also thanks to **EvilChick101 and Josh** for reviewing!

'_Ew, Gary Smith, I didn't even know he was in this class,' _she thought, repulsed. Actually, he was pretty good looking, despite the scar above his right eye. She wondered vaguely how he got it.

But still, he totally creeped her out. He had no friends except for that Paul Kowalski kid or whatever his name was, who was equally dorky, and she'd seen him walking around talking to himself on several occasions.

"No," she snapped at him. "And if I did, I wouldn't give it to you, dorkwad."

Gary scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Easy, princess, take it down a notch or twelve," he said smoothly.

"Stop calling me that," she said snottily, turning back to her notebook.

"Whatever you say, princess," he smirked.

Now she was getting pissed. Her fist clenched, causing her manicured red nails to dig into her palm. She wanted to punch him in the face when she heard him sniggering.

"What the hell is your problem, asshole? Are you so deranged from lack of social interaction that you're purposely pissing me off?" she asked venomously. He raised an eyebrow. "No, but its obviously working," he said, the smirk still in place.

"Are you aware that my boyfriend, you know, Ted Thompson, captain of the football team, could break you in half if I asked him to?" she whispered, as Mr. Galloway cleared his throat in their direction.

Gary's eyes narrowed and he suddenly looked like a cornered animal. "Is that a _threat,_ Wiles? You might wanna watch yourself, and same goes for your faggot boyfriend," he said dangerously.

Mandy was suddenly very uncomfortable. She didn't know the kid from a hole in the wall, but the look on his face was enough to make her shut up. She'd heard all kinds of rumors from Christy about how he was heavily medicated so that he wouldn't hurt people, and Pinky said that he loved torturing people…

She didn't say another word to him the rest of class.

Finally, the lunch bell rang. Mandy grabbed her bag and strutted out the door, eager to get away from Creepers McGee. She made a mad dash for the caf; certainly not for the barely edible food, but so that she could hopefully see Ted before all of his 'roid monkey friends came and stole him from her.

She bumped into Pinky on the way, and the two walked together. "Where were you last night? You kept me waiting, you know how I _hate_ waiting," she huffed.

"I fell asleep," Mandy shrugged. "And no offense, Pinky, I don't want to date Tad, okay? He's annoying."

Pinky nodded in agreement. "I know right? He pretends like he's all from old money, but he's _really_ nouveau riche,"

"Nouveau _what_?"

"Nouveau _riche, _darling, as in "new money"," Pinky explained as though Mandy actually gave a shit.

"Whatever. I'll see you tonight," Mandy waved, and the two went over to their respective clique tables.

The preps and jocks weren't rivals, but they weren't exactly close allies either, save for Mandy and Pinky. Pinky was pretty much Mandy's best friend, even though she never felt the desperate need for close friends. It was all about _her_, don't forget.

Mandy, as usual, was the only girl at her table. She plopped down next to Ted as the other boys were talking about "the Big Game" this weekend. What else did they talk about? Oh yeah, nothing.

"Hey babe," said Ted, downing his coke. She was greeted with a chorus of 'Sup Mandy' from the rest of the boys.

"So, Mandy, got the squad ready for the Game?" asked Kirby from across the table. Mandy internally sighed. For the whole first week of October, literally everyone (or everyone who mattered)'s lives revolved around Homecoming Weekend, aka "The Big Game". It was like its own separate entity.

"Yeah, we're in top form. Hillside won't even know what hit 'em," Mandy answered, studying her nails. "That's my girl," said Ted, rubbing her shoulder.

"Where's the after party this year?" asked Bo Jackson. "Dude, Derby Harrington _actually_ said we could use his old beach house. You know, the one next to the light house," said Dan, chomping on a sandwich.

"Only because we're paying the little bitch to get us booze," Damon said. "Probably gonna steal it from daddy's stash."

Mandy glanced over at the prep table. Derby was talking with Bif and had his arm around Pinky, who looked bored and annoyed. Her eyes landed on Tad, who was practically undressing her with his eyes. '_Obviously. Who wouldn't?'_

She looked away quickly, scanning the rest of the caf. Christy and Angie were flirting with a couple of scrawny looking kids, one of them being Constaninos the mascot. Poor girls, what would they do without her unwavering guidance? She also saw that slut, Lola Lombardi, all over Johnny Vincent as usual. _'He's kind of cute. What is doing dating such a slutty bitch?'_

Many girls have asked Ted Thompson the same question.

Her eyes landed on the entrance to the caf, and her heart caught in her throat. Gary Smith was standing in the doorframe, staring directly at her.

'_Omigod, is there like, a sign on my forehead that says 'PLEASE STARE AT ME FREAKS'?' _

She held his gaze, glaring at him. She grabbed Ted's arm protectively, and he sauntered away like a cat with that damn smirk on his face. _'Perv,'_

Mandy was a little disturbed by that, but she let it roll off and tried to focus on Ted's endless football talk. When the bell finally rang, Mandy kissed Ted's cheek and went to her afternoon class.

The rest of the day seemed endless; she just wanted to get cheerleading over with and go to bed. It seemed like Friday would never come, but it was less than 12 hours away.

At long last, the final bell rang. Mandy bolted out of chemistry, with Angie in tow, back to girl's dorm. She was having an early practice and getting her beauty sleep.

"Hey, Mandy…?" Angie began tentatively.

"Yeah…" Mandy replied, sounding uninterested.

"Do you think Constantinos likes me? We talk a lot, and I found a box of chocolates in my locker that I think might be from him," she said shyly, giggling slightly.

"Sweetie, I think you can raise your standards a little higher than the school mascot. I mean, you're cute, and he's kind of…not," Mandy answered, deciding it was best to be honest with her.

"Well, I tried with Jimmy Hopkins, but he's not exactly a one-woman kind of guy," she admitted sheepishly. Mandy suddenly felt bad for her; Ted had cheated on her plenty of times, and Mandy was just insecure enough to take him back every time.

"Well, if you like him, go for it," she said, trying to sound encouraging.

"Really? Thanks Mandy, you're a good friend," Angie said happily. "I really am," Mandy replied, but her smile was genuine for once. As selfish as she was, she kind of liked helping people. But no one needed to know that.

--

After practice was over and Mandy had showered and changed, she was aching to get to bed. She had just snuggled into her comforter when Christy came bounding in.

"You'll never guess who I just made out with!" she gushed in her nasally voice.

Mandy buried her face in her pillow. "No, but I'm sure you'll tell me anyways," she said, her voice muffled.

"Jimmy Hopkins!" she yelped, as if it were the greatest thing in the universe to ever happen to anyone.

So _she_ was the other woman in Angie and Jimmy's short lived relationship. Christy and Angie were supposed to be best friends, it was a Code violation!

Then again, if Mandy ever slept with Derby or Pinky with Ted (which she very well may have), they would get into a bitch fight and be friends twenty minutes later. That was just how things worked around there.

"I bet Angie loved that," Mandy responded sarcastically, squeezing her eyes shut and wishing she were asleep. Christy seemed to freeze.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, you didn't know? Jimmy was going out with her, like, two days ago. Guess she forgot to tell you," Mandy said innocently. She knew it was mean, but Christy needed to know when she was being a shitty friend.

Christy didn't say another word, and Mandy drifted off into a blissful slumber, this time without any psycho dreams.

The alarm on her iHome went blasting off at 8 am the next morning, playing some random song. Mandy opened one eye as the sun from the windows streamed in on her face; perfect weather for her perfect weekend.

She slowly got out of bed and fumbled around for her uniform. Christy had already left, she noted, not waiting to walk with her to English.

'_Guess I deserved that,'_

Mandy was dreading English. First of all, she was getting her big test back that she just _knew _she failed. Second, she had to sit next to that stalker Gary. And third, did she mention that test she failed?

By the time she was done getting ready, she had 15 minutes to get to class. She made her way to the main building, dodging various eggs and stink bombs being thrown all over the campus. She laughed as the prefects made vain attempts to stop kids from hurling firecrackers at each other (or occasionally at prefects themselves).

Suddenly, she felt something collide painfully with her.

"Ow!" she snapped. "Watch it,"

She looked down to see the fat ass nerd, "Algie" (_'what a retarded name') _staring up at her.

"Hi Mandy!" he said cheerfully. "Sorry I bumped into you, really, I have terrible hand-eye coordination and I was just trying to get to the bathroom and Russell's friends were giving me wedgies and-"

"Hey, Algie, you know what you can do for me?" she asked.

"Anything, my queen," he said anxiously.

"Lose 80 pounds so that I won't throw up next time I see you," she said sweetly.

Algie nodded vigorously. "Wow, sure Mandy! Anything for you!"

Mandy scoffed, walking away. Even the little dorkwads couldn't put her in a bad mood today. Tonight she would go to the carnival with her friends, then tomorrow she'd cheer her heart out then get nice and drunk and have sex with Ted. It was going to be absolutely perfect, and _nothing_ was gonna fuck it up.

Not even lame English class. She spoke English already, why did they even have to take it? Then she realized it was kind of embarrassing to be failing your own language.

She entered the class before the bell, looking at Christy as she walked to her seat. Christy kept her head down, focusing intently on her pink pencil.

'_Whatevs, she'll get over it by tonight,'_

She sat down, taking out her favorite monogrammed notebook and doodling hearts on it.

"Okay class, I'm going to hand back your tests now," Galloway slurred, already a little tipsy.

Mandy's throat tightened. _'Oh, damn.'_ She'd hoped he would be too drunk to remember.

She waited an agonizing two minutes before he placed the paper face down on her desk. When a teacher did that, it was never good. It meant you got a bad grade and they didn't want anyone else to see it so you wouldn't feel like you totally sucked, even though you knew you did.

She groaned inwardly, gingerly flipping the paper over.

And, to no one's surprise, a big fat 56% was glaring up at her in big red ink. She quickly flipped it back over so she wouldn't have to look at it, and put her head in her hand in frustration. Why the hell was she so dumb?

She chanced a glance over at Gary's test. A big red 94% was at the top of his paper, but he seemed like he couldn't have cared less. So he was an intelligent sociopath.

He glanced over at her, smirking at the look on her face.

"Aw, did the little princess fail her test?" he asked mockingly.

"Yeah, she did," she replied evenly, not wanting to play the back-and-forth snipe game they played yesterday.

"What are you gonna do when they kick you off the squad? You cant have any F's on your report card as cheer captain, right?" he asked with mock concern.

Her heart stopped suddenly. She hadn't even thought of that. The little prick was right, she _couldn't _have F's. She was the frigging captain! A panic suddenly arose in her chest. Without cheerleading, she wasn't popular, and without popularity, she wasn't…anything! She would be nothing; a useless has-been who everyone hated. Hell no, not on her watch she wouldn't be.

"You know," Gary began in a smooth voice. "I'm pretty good at English…I could, maybe, offer my services." She didn't like his tone; it sounded like he was talking about some completely different services…

"You? Why would I want _you _to help me? And why would _you_ want to help _me_, besides the fact that I'm gorgeous and popular," she said.

"Like I said, I'm good at English, I could help you pass so you'd stay on the squad," he said. What the hell was his game?

"What's in it for you? Do you think I'm a meal ticket or something? Cause tutoring me isn't gonna help you're cause any, pal," she informed him.

He shook his head. "I could care less what the clowns here think of me, even though I already know. Look, if you really have to know, Crabblesnitch thinks it would be good if I got more involved, you know, school spirit type thing," he explained.

Mandy couldn't tell if he was full of shit or not, but she figured, what the hell? She'd let the little weirdo get whatever sick fantasy he had out of his system, and pass English at the same time.

"Alright, fine, we'll do this stupid thing. But here's the deal; _no one_ can know about this. If anyone found out _I _was being tutored by _you_, I'd legit die," she said dramatically.

"Yeah, that would be a shame," he smirked sarcastically. "Meet me outside the basement doors tomorrow morning, at like, 10. Too early for you, Sleeping Beauty?" he sneered.

"Fine, I'll be there," she agreed reluctantly.

What the hell had she just gotten herself into?

--

Gary smirked at the brunette as she turned back to her notebook. _'Perfect. Phase one of part four of plan A is underway. Can't believe it's actually working…'_ he thought, his overactive mind racing as he began piecing together the elements of his master plan. Sooon, the whole school would be his, and she was gonna help him get it, unbeknownst to her.

'_Stupid girl has no idea what she just got herself into,'_


	3. And So It Begins

**A/N: Much thanks again to my lovely reviewers, you keep me going! **

Mandy left English, the heavy weight of dread settling in her stomach. Tomorrow at 10 am…the day she was going to die. And right before the Game, too. Cruel, cruel fate.

'_What the hell is wrong with you? You're meeting him in a __**basement**__, and no one's gonna know about it, so if he rapes you, you're like, screwed!'_

The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if she should just get an F and be kicked off the squad.

Um, yeah right.

If Mandy had learned one thing about life from her absent-minded parents, it was that you were always going to have to make sacrifices. It was a saying her father lived by.

In Mandy's opinion, she had made many sacrifices so far in her young life. She sacrificed her freedom to come to this dump, she sacrificed her dignity and morals in order to be popular, and she sacrificed English class in favor of cheerleading.

Now, in order to keep the one thing in her life that made her better and more popular than everyone else, she was going to have to sacrifice a freakin' arm and a leg, but it was worth it to her. She felt like she owed something to her beloved sport that most people wouldn't actually consider a sport.

Hey, at least her priorities were in order.

Classes were let out early on Homecoming Friday, so that everyone could prep for the Game the next day. The football team plus Mandy and her squad were going down to the carnival that night to get hyped up. Mandy personally wanted to drink up, but that would come later.

She quickly exited the school, eager to get ready for the evening festivities. She bumped into Angie on the way.

"Hey, you excited for tonight?" Mandy asked, stopping to talk to her. Angie nodded, giggling. Did she ever stop giggling? Ugh.

"Yeah, and guess what?" Angie squealed.

Mandy absolutely despised guessing games, so she just shrugged.

"Well, Constantinos asked me on a date, so I kind of just…invited him out with us," she said nervously. Mandy made a face.

"The mascot?" she asked with a grimace.

"Yeah…"

Ew.

"Oh." Mandy said, attempting to sound indifferent. Being seen with a social reject in a very public place was total social suicide; but what could she say?

"So anyways, I'll see you in a while," Mandy said. "Yeah, bye!" Angie said with a wave, skipping off somewhere else.

Must be nice to be so blissfully unaware of everything going on in the universe.

--

Mandy spent over two hours getting ready in her dorm along with Christy, who wasn't talking to her much.

The girls met up with Pinky outside Harrington. Angie was going to meet them there with Mascot Boy.

The three girls went over to the front gates where the football players were waiting with bikes. Ted wheeled his over to Mandy.

"Your chariot, my lady," he said, patting the seat behind him. Mandy smiled at his total cuteness, climbing on the back. "You are _such_ a dork." It wasn't quite the white horse and he wasn't exactly the knight, but for now it would have to do. Christy and Pinky climbed on with Kirby and Bo, and they rode off to the carnival.

When they got there, Ted pulled out his wallet, buying Mandy's ticket. She held his hand in hers as he led her over to certain carnival games. Pinky was begging Kirby Olsen to win her a souvenir, hanging onto his arm and pouting.

Sorry honey, he showers with boys (Trent Northwick), haven't you heard?

Angie and Mascot were on the Ferris wheel, being nauseating. Christy and Casey Harris went into the funhouse and had yet to come back out. Mandy was almost 99% sure that they were in there for a different kind of fun.

She and Ted went on the rollercoaster, and she screamed and laughed hysterically, despite almost barfing all over Ted. It was one of her rare moments when she let loose while sober, and she secretly loved it. She wished she could be that way all the time, but she had a rep to keep, you know?

After two hours of rides, go-kart races, and a disgusting visit to the House of Freaks, they realized it was after 11. Violating curfew was something they were used to doing, but if a cop saw you, you had to run fast.

They left the carnival on bikes, taking shortcuts and back roads to get back to Bullworth. They were just about there, sneaking by one of the last cops on patrol, when Juri ran over something on his bike, causing him to topple over. The others came to screeching halt.

"Who's there?" they heard the commanding voice of the cop. "HEY!"

They all looked to the cop who was now running after them in hot pursuit.

"Aw shit!" yelled Kirby, leading the pack. They all pedaled fiercely, and Mandy looked behind her, telling Ted to speed up. She loved outrunning cops; it was a total rush

They finally left the cop, winded, behind. They raced into the parking lot, locking the bikes in the garage.

It wasn't even midnight yet, and they usually went back to the Clubhouse. Angie took off with Mascot (_'I don't even wanna know')_ and the rest of them trudged to the field.

Mandy was having so much fun she forgot all about meeting Gary in the morning. The feeling of dread returned to her stomach like a led balloon, and she tried to push it from her mind.

"So…" Damon began once they were inside the Clubhouse that smelled like jockstraps. "Anyone up for naked Twister?"

Mandy smirked. She happened to be _very_ good at naked Twister.

--

She awoke the next morning feeling like she had a hangover. She didn't remember how she had made it into her own bed either. She glanced at the clock; 9:45.

'_Shit'_

She should have been pumped, as it was Game Day, but Gary Smith was already putting a damper on her day. At least it was sunny out.

She ditched her usual cheerleading ensemble for leggings and sweatshirt, threw on her tennis sneakers, grabbed her English book and quietly left the dorm. A lot of the girls were still asleep since it was Saturday, but Hardcastle McCormick, who some people knew as Ms. Peabody, was patrolling like an ugly, annoying vulture as usual.

The campus was fairly active for such an early hour, and Mandy kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Gary. She slowly made her way to the side of the school, each step weighed down with anticipation.

When she saw him leaning against the wall at the entrance to the basement, her heart sank. She was hoping he would stand her up, like she probably _should_ have done, but for some reason they both held up their ends of the bargain.

He nodded at her in curt acknowledgement. "Wow, Wiles, you showed. I'm impressed," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "I said I'd be here, didn't I?"

Gary shrugged. "People say a lot of things," he said bitterly. She noticed the anger that flashed dangerously in his eyes, but ignored it.

"So, what the hell are we going down there for?" she asked impatiently.

"You said you didn't wanna be seen together,"

"I don't,"

"Well, this is the only place on campus that isn't public," he said, leading her down into the musty basement.

"What, are we like going to The Hole or something?" she asked, genuinely confused.

He smirked. "Just trust me, Wiles,"

"Not a chance, Smith," she retorted.

They continued through the dirty basement, avoiding boxes and chain-link fences enclosing generators.

"This is disgusting, I'm gonna throw up," she complained, inhaling fumes from the boiler.

"Almost there," he said in a taunting voice. Mandy was beginning to think that this was hardly worth it.

Finally, he opened a door at the end of a narrow hallway.

"Okay, Smith, where the hell are we?"

"Just some old storage room…but it has desks and stuff," he said. She cautiously sat in one of the vacant desks, and he sat opposite her.

"So, what don't get?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"In English, Wiles. What don't you get about English? I mean, it is your native language," he smirked.

She narrowed her eyes at the comment. "Everything, I guess," she admitted.

"Okay…so I guess you'd probably wanna start at chapter one…"

"Whatevs, I don't have all day you know,"

"Oh I know. You have "The Big Game" to cheer at. Or should I say look like an idiot at," he said casually.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. All you cheerleaders are alike, all beauty and no brains,"

"You don't even know me, asshole!"

"I don't need to, people can figure you out pretty quick due to your lack of dimensions," he scoffed.

"Ok, first of all, stop using big words,"

He laughed cruelly. "Thanks for just proving my point with that statement,"

"If I'm such a brainless slut, why are you even helping me?"

"Just the kind of guy I am," he shrugged, smirking.

"Kind of creep, you mean. I've heard _plenty_ about you," she said venomously.

"Oh really? Like what?" he said, feigning interest, even though he had heard all of the rumors a million times before.

"You're heavily medicated because you have severe ADD. You love to mentally torture people, get them to do your dirty work, and you're a paranoid sociopath, to name a few," she challenged.

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow, why am I not at Happy Volts?" he questioned, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Same here," she agreed. "You have no friends, you hate everyone and everyone hates you. Total social outcast."

He scoffed. "I don't _need_ friends. I don't need anyone. My parents, friends, no one. They're all just a liability," he said, an underlying anger crackling in his deep voice.

She stopped for a moment to study his facial expression. He had a look of cold resentment and intense hate in his brown eyes.

What the fucking hell happened to this kid during his childhood? There was clearly something wrong with him…she almost felt a pang of sympathy for the sorry bastard.

Almost, but not really. He was a prick.

Her eyes scanned his face again, stopping at the prominent scar that sliced through his eyebrow and ran all the way under his eye.

"What the _hell_ do you keep staring at?" he demanded impatiently.

"Where'd you get that scar?" she asked, her impulsiveness getting the better of her.

His face froze, and he looked extremely uncomfortable, but tried to shrug it off.

"Don't worry about it," he said nonchalantly.

No one had ever asked him how he had gotten in his scar, and he'd been grateful for it. He hated talking about it, he even hated thinking about it. He hated the scar with every fiber of his being.

"I wanna know," she said nosily.

He rolled his eyes. "I fell off my bike when I was 5," he shrugged.

"Oh yeah, good one," she snorted.

"Fine, I ran into a glass door and broke it," he tried again.

"If that's your story," she said, unconvinced.

"So, getting back to English…" he said, taking her book from her. Her most recent test fell out of the binding. She tried to grab it but he was too quick, and he held It up over her head.

"Wow, a 56, nice work Wiles," he mocked. She reached up and grabbed the test from his hands.

"This is why I need help, dickhead," she said angrily.

"Okay, you're right, I'm sorry," he said in a tone that indicated anything but. "I promise, I'll help you ace the next one,"

"You better, for what I'm going through for this,"

"Just be lucky I'm not making you pay me…yet,"

--

For the next hour or so, they worked on stuff she got wrong on her test. He was actually being somewhat civil to her for the most part, except for when he called her retarded because she didn't understand something.

After what seemed like forever, Mandy pulled out her phone. 1:42.

"Omigod, we've been at this for like, 3 and a half hours," she said, surprised.

"That's it?" he asked casually.

"Well, I have to go get ready to look like an idiot," she said, getting up from the desk book and shooting him a glare.

"Oh yeah, god forbid you miss out on looking like a moron," he rolled his eyes, getting up as well.

"So, uh, see ya," she said awkwardly.

"Later,"

"I don't have practice on Tuesday, so I guess we can do it again then," she added.

"Whatever,"

She huffed impatiently at his one word answers. "Um, how the hell do I get out of here, by the way?"

He snorted, rolling his eyes. "Follow me, princess,"

"Do you enjoy getting your balls ripped off?"

"Not particularly,"

"Well, keep calling me princess and you might experience it," she snapped.

He bit his tongue and led her out of the basement into the main hallways of the school.

Without acknowledging him again, she turned and walked down the hallway, as he went in the other direction.

'_Damn, glad that's over with. Time to concentrate on your big night,'_

_--_

Gary Smith was heading back to his dorm, a million thoughts buzzing though his head and an intense, focused look on his face.

'_So far, this plan is working perfectly. She even wants to have another 'study session', isn't that just __**precious**__? Ha, gag me. But soon, I'll have that bitch totally warped, and FINALLY the toughest clique will be conquered by ME …and at the rate the Hopkins punk is going, I'll swoop in on the others and take it all…'_

He was used to having these mini-conversations in his head. Today he was especially excited, likely because he forgot to take his meds.

He wished he could be this excited all the time. Those goddamn meds…why did he even need them? He was perfectly fine without them…in fact, he was better off without them. Now he could think, no, _plot_, more clearly. Yes, he needed to ditch the meds.

He got back to his dorm and immediately grabbed his pill bottle. He went into the bathroom, dumped the bottle of tiny white pills into the toilet, and flushed. He felt a sense of adrenaline course through him; Bullworth Academy was in for a _very _rude awakening.


End file.
